Santa Clarita Divorce Service Celebrating National Small Business Week

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We are proud to be a small business in Santa Clarita.  And if you didn’t know, this week is National Small Business Week, so we are celebrating.

But what are we celebrating exactly?  Well, we have worked hard to grow our small business in the last year.  We have taken our Santa Clarita divorce service from a home based business working out of our loft to a executive office in Valencia with 3 employees in less than a year.  That is cause for celebration.

When we first started, we would meet clients at Starbucks on the corner of Valencia Blvd and The Old Road.  When we first started we were not sure if this would be a viable business model.  We were pretty sure there was a demand for affordable divorce services in Santa Clarita, but were not sure if there was enough demand to allow us to keep our prices low enough for most people to afford our service.

After a little more than a year, our Santa Clarita divorce business is doing well.  We now employ three people in Santa Clarita.  When we hired our first employee, the business took on an entirely new feel.  I now was responsible for the welfare of another persons livelihood.  It is like when you have a baby, you realize it is no longer just about you.

We are also now working with the College of the Canyons Paralegal Program and assisting with training some of their soon-to-be-paralegals who are required to complete (2) sixty hour internships as part of their curriculum.  Some of their students perform internships with us and learn the in’s and out’s of working with a family law divorce service.

Running a small business is tough.  We put in a lot of hours to keep the business going.  Having a small business means thinking about it 24 hours a day and it can really consume you.

We are looking forward to expanding our services into the surrounding counties over the next couple of years.

Here is to all the Santa Clarita small business who make this community great and provide jobs and services to our community.

 

 

Don’t Start Your Divorce On Your Own | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

As a self help divorce service in Santa Clarita, we are big proponents of doing your own divorce.  But we don’t recommend you actually do it yourself. Rather we suggest you use a divorce preparation service such as ours.

What we mean by saying we are proponents of doing your own divorce , we mean that you don’t need to hire an attorney to complete your divorce.  You can use our divorce service and because we don’t represent you, you are considered to be doing your own divorce.

We want to make a recommendation.  We suggest that you don’t attempt to do your own divorce without assistance.  We have found that many people start the divorce process, but are never able to finish it.

They are told that it is easy and they can do it themselves.  While this is technically true, it is a rare occasion when someone actually navigates the divorce process successfully on their own.

For those that do attempt to start their divorce, we find that when they come to us for help, it is much more work for us to fix the mistakes you have made on the paperwork than had we just prepared the entire divorce package.

We have clients who call us and want to know how much it would cost to finish their divorce and that they “have already completed most of the paperwork”.  Well, we have learned that the more paperwork “that has been completed” the more work it will actually be for us.

We have never had a client come to us, who had prepared some of the paperwork, where we did not have to fix something.

So what we do in these cases where someone has prepared some of their documents is to complete a case review.  We will look at everything you have done so far and make any corrections and amend the forms as necessary.

So don’t start your own divorce.  Because even if you come to us after doing some of the forms, we are likely going to have to spend more time fixing them.

We Prepare File and Serve Your Divorce Papers | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Are you looking for a divorce service in Santa Clarita that can take care of your entire divorce?  We are just that company.  We take care of everything from preparing your forms to serving them and filing them with the court.

We are your one stop shop and full service divorce company serving all of Los Angeles County and centrally located in Santa Clarita.

There are divorce services online where all they do is send you the divorce forms.  You can order the divorce papers totally blank or you can use some automated document assembly to prepare your forms.

There are many problems with this.  There is nobody to review your documents before you have them printed.  I can’t tell you how many clients I have who came to me after using one of these online divorce services.  They basically just through away their money.

The next problem with this is that you are not aware of the court procedure on how to file and serve your divorce forms.  This is where people really have trouble.

The interesting thing is that we don’t charge that much more than these online companies charge and we provide so much more.  Our divorce service has such tremendous value.  Not to mention that we can save you $435 on the costs of filing your divorce when you use our service.

We are the only full service divorce company that will prepare, file and serve your divorce papers in Los Angeles County.  We operate just like a law firm does and prepare all the forms exactly the same way.  This way if you ever needed an attorney for some reason, most of your paperwork will already have been completed.

Give us a call to discuss your particular situation.  We will be happy to provide you with a free over the phone consultation.

What Our Santa Clarita Full Service Divorce Firm Does For You

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

When people call our Santa Clarita divorce service, they often want to know all what we do.  Well, we are a full service divorce company which means we take care of everything.  Lets discuss this in detail.

We Prepare All The Divorce Forms

We prepare all the divorce forms for you.  This is as opposed to send you a long questionnaire to have you fill it out. (which is the standard in the industry).  Most companies that provide legal document preparation will place the burden on you to complete a long (sometimes 25 page long) questionnaire.  What they expect you to do it all the work basically.

That is not how we operate.  We will prepare all your documents for you.  You simply provide the information we request and documents we require and sign your name.

We File All Documents With The Court

Did you know that other companies will complete your documents, then tell you to go to the court and file them? Unbelievable.  We operate just like a law firm does, which means we employ an attorney service that files all our divorce papers for us.  This means you never have to go to court and your forms are hand carried to the courts.  This ensures a fast and secure way of getting your divorce forms filed with the court.

We Serve All Divorce Documents

Again, being full service means taking care of everything.  This includes handling the service of all your documents.  This part can be tricky if your not familiar with court procedure.  Some forms have to be filed, others do not.  Some divorce forms have to be personally served, while others can be served by mail.  We take the guesswork out of the divorce procedure and handle this for you.

We Prepare And Submit Your Final Divorce Papers

When all the procedural steps to the divorce have been completed and documents done, we will prepare your final judgment or agreement.  Once the parties agree on the terms of the divorce, we will prepare the final agreement.  After your judgment is signed, it needs to be submitted to the court.  We do this for you. We will have your judgment hand delivered to the judgment clerk at the court.  This will ensure your case is reviewed quickly by the court and approved.

This was just a glimpse of what we provide with our Santa Clarita full service divorce.  Of course we always available for questions along the way. Because we have worked for large Santa Clarita law firms and the courts, we understand the forms and divorce procedure like the back of our hand.

When you are ready to file for divorce, don’t make the mistake of trying to do it yourself or spending thousands of dollars using an attorney.  Just give us a call and we will take care of your divorce from start to finish.

Are You Working With A Divorce Solo Practitioner Attorney | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

When it comes to family law attorneys in the Santa Clarita valley, you only have a handful of choices.  Don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty out here, but it is still a small community.

Many divorce attorneys in the Santa Clarita Valley are what you call “Solo Practitioners”.  This means that they practice alone without a partner attorney.  In most cases, this also means that they do not have any staff such as a receptionist or paralegal to assist them.

This brings me to the topic I wanted to address.  If you are working with a solo practitioner who does not have a staff or paralegal assisting them, you are going to end up paying the attorney’s hourly rate for everything that is done on your divorce case.

Case in point.  I had a new client that had me file their divorce case.  She just wanted to file the petition and get things started with our company because she felt there was a good chance she would need a divorce attorney down the road.

So we filed the summons and petition and had her spouse served.  She then went on a consultation with a divorce attorney in Santa Clarita.  The divorce attorney was a solo practitioner with no staff or paralegal to assist him.  So she asked what his hourly rate is.  He responded that he charges $300 per hour.

The next step for her was to complete her financial disclosures.  This is hardly a process that requires and attorney to prepare.  What shocked me was that the attorney actually advised her to continue working with us to prepare her financial disclosures because it would be cheaper.

If she was to use this attorney’s services at this point, she would be looking at spending around $1,500 to complete her financial disclosures.  We can do that for a fraction of that cost.

I have talked about this many times in the past.  There is no reason to hire an attorney until you need them for legal advice or to represent you in court.

This client did exactly what someone should do who is looking to save money on their divorce, even if they need an attorney.  She hired our divorce legal to get the process started.  She had us file the summons and petition and have her spouse served.  We are preparing her financial disclosures and serving those as wel and are completing the filing with the court.

Now she can take her completed documents over to her attorney who can now litigate her divorce if necessary.  For more information you can read the article where we discuss having us start your divorce in Santa Clarita even if you know you will need an attorney by clicking on this link.

Important To Remember What Happened In Court | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We have had several of our clients go to court lately.  No matter how many times I tell them to remember what happens in court, they often forget.

I don’t blame them.  There is a lot going on and they are nervous and in unfamiliar territory.  The problem is that we need to know what orders the judge made so that we can do what they said to do.

Most recently we had a client go to court and the judge made some orders.  Our client called us to inform us that he was not sure exactly what the judge said he had to do.

All he could remember is that a new trial date was set and that he was supposed to complete his judgment before the trial date.

When this happens, we want to make sure what was said in court so we can complete whatever the judge informed us to.  So what we did was have our attorney service go to the department and ask for a copy of the minute order.  Click on this link for more information of what a minute order during a divorce hearing is.

When we received the minute order, it said that he was supposed to give his spouse notice of the next hearing.  He did not hear that part.  Here is the problem with that.  If he had not contacted us to help him with his divorce, he would have not known about giving notice of the next hearing.

Seems harmless enough, but had he shown up to court without giving notice of the hearing and trial, he would have shown up and the court would have realized that the other party was not informed of the hearing and had to continue the case to yet another court date.

Representing yourself during your divorce can be very challenging and have significant setbacks.  No wonder it takes people representing themselves during divorce so long to get through the process.

We recommend you use a competent divorce firm to help you with your divorce paperwork.

SCV Legal Doc Assist

27240 Turnberry Lane, Ste. 200 Valencia, CA 91355

Self Help Divorce Legal Representation In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

What does it mean to work with a self help divorce legal representation company in Santa Clarita?

Essentially it means that we provide a self help service.  As a self help divorce service, you are technically representing yourself.  We are here to assist you in preparing your divorce documents, explain the process of divorce and to keep your case moving.

We do just about everything, however we are not allowed to give you legal advice and we cannot represent you in court.  What this means is that if you do have legal questions that we cannot answer you simply need to have a consultation with an attorney, get your questions answered and then we can proceed as normal.

Many times, we will ask the divorce attorneys down the hall from our office a question here or there on your behalf if it is something that is pretty straight forward.

What started out as a divorce service where we only handled straight forward and simple divorces in Santa Clarita, we are finding that people have contested divorce cases that they are trying to get through, but just don’t have the financial resources to hire an attorney.

Sometimes this means helping them to file a motion for attorney fees so they can get a judge to order the other party pay so they can hire an attorney, and sometimes we will take them all the way through their contested divorce case.

We can get you through complicated divorce matters, but just realize the you will be the one going to court.  Surprisingly our clients are not bashful and do a great job appearing in court and representing themselves.

It works out pretty good actually and is a huge costs savings.  You work with us to prepare all your divorce documents and when you need legal advice you just need to seek out an attorney on a consultation basis only.  Then, when it is time for court, you simply show up and handle the matter on your own.

If you are looking for self help divorce legal representation in Santa Clarita please give us a call.

Join Our Santa Clarita Divorce Service Community On Google Plus

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We continue to find ways to help people going through divorce in Santa Clarita.  As we dive into the social media scene we have decided to build a community on Google Plus.  We have created the first Santa Clarita Divorce Service Community on Google+.

To check out our Santa Clarita Divorce Service G+ Community Click This Link.

Google Plus has not seen a very large audience yet.  We are definitely getting in early on this and hope that it eventually develops into something.  As it stands now, we are the only company that posts our divorce self help articles on Google+ anywhere in the Los Angeles County Area.

If you hashtag #SantaClaritaDivorce or #LosAngelesDivorce or even just #Divorce, we are one of the only companies that comes up.  We have posted videos, podcasts and our blog posts to Google Plus which can all be found by searching by hashtag or by joining our Santa Clarita Divorce Service community.

This is just one more way for us to get the word out about our affordable divorce service in Los Angeles County.  We are still the only non-attorney legal service in Santa Clarita and are the only legal service that specializes only on divorce in all of Los Angeles County.

Were not sure if the whole divorce community thing will take off or not.  I mean, will people really post their questions there so we can help them out.  Because you have to have a Google account there may be a lack of privacy.  Divorce is a private matter and I am not sure if people will post questions if their profile can be seen by others.  Only time will tell.

At the very least, we can post our own comments and link our blog articles there so people can simply visit the G+ community.

If you have questions about divorce, we would love to hear from you whether you join our Sana Clarita Divorce Service Community or simply give us a call.

 

 

How To Dismiss Your California Divorce Case | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I had two clients in the last 2 months decide they wanted to reconcile with their spouse.  This article will discuss how you go about dismissing or cancelling your California Divorce case.

The six month cooling off period in California is there for exactly this reason.  Imagine if you could divorce in one day.  How many people would have to get remarried.  People do decide to try and make their marriage work after one of the parties have filed for divorce.

Before we talk about the exact way to file for a dismissal to cancel your case, you should consider this.

If you cancel your divorce case, and later decide it is not going to work out, you will have to re-file for divorce.  This means paying the filing fee again and having to do all the paperwork again.  Essentially, you will have to start over.

One thing you may want to consider is to just let the divorce case sit with the court while you attempt to work things out.  If your spouse has been served already then it is unlikely that the courts will send you anything in the mail or request you to go to a hearing.  However, if you have not had your spouse served, you can expect that they will set a hearing to follow up on how the process is going.

If after reading this you still want to file for a dismissal of your California divorce, here is what you do.  You will need to file a form CIV-110 – Request For Dismissal.  This is a generic form that is used for many types of cases, not just divorce cases.  If you need to get a free copy of the form, simply search for “Fillable CIV-110” and you will be able to download a copy.

Here is a couple of rules to follow when filing a CIV-110 – Request For Dismissal of your family law case.

If you have filed and your spouse has not filed a response then only you (the Petitioner) need complete, sign and file the dismissal.  If your spouse has filed a Response in the family law case, they too will have to sign the consent to dismiss the case.

The reason for this is because your spouse can decide they want to continue with the divorce, even if you want to reconcile your marriage.  So you will have to get your spouses agreement to dismiss your divorce if there has been both a Petition and Response filed with the court.

Divorcing In Santa Clarita | We Take Care Of That | SCV Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

If you live in Santa Clarita and are planning on divorcing, you should give us a call.  We can help you take care of your divorce in Santa Clarita.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that can take care of preparing all the divorce documents from start to finish.  We file all the documents, serve all the forms.

We operate on a fixed fee schedule which means you know how much your divorce is going to cost you before you ever get started.  No retainer fees here and we don’t charge by the hour.  You know what your getting into before you ever get started and there are no hidden fees.

You will have 2 costs when getting divorced.  You will have the court filing fee. Currently this is $435.00 and you will pay that fee whether you do your divorce yourself or have us do it for you.

The other cost you will have is our cost for preparing your divorce for you.  The fee you will pay will depend on how much work there is to do on your file.  We generally will ask you just a hand full of questions and quote you a firm price right over the phone.  You can also go to our pricing page and see where you fit in.

Here are some of the questions we ask to determine the costs for preparing your divorce.

  1. How long have you been married?  This lets us know if there might be a request for spousal support.
  2. Do you have minor children? Then we will know if we need to draft a parenting plan and child support.
  3. If there are any pensions to divide.  Pensions have to be divided by a QDRO Attorney.
  4. Amount and type of property to divide?  This will let us know how much property is at stake.

The divorce process is complicated.  It is not something you should attempt on your own.  Give us a call so we can discuss your options for getting completing the divorce process.`